Krabi and Berlin two centre holiday

I was lucky to win a trip to Thailand for two people courtesy of Tourism Authority of Thailand and Centara Hotels & Resorts I decided to take my wife Becky, as we have never been to Krabi before. Thailand is very close to both of our hearts, as we had our first ever holiday as a couple plus we got married in Koh Samui. Our trip started with flights from London to Berlin with British Airways with an overnight stop in Berlin, quite excited as we’ve never been to Berlin before. We stayed at the Premier Inn near the airport. We were both very impressed with Berlin, as a city break destination. We saw Brandberg gate, German parliament building- Reichstag Building and Alexanderplatz. We found getting around Berlin very easy and cheap. A Berlin card for the day cost 10.70 per person which includes unlimited bus, tram metro and train within Berlin city with a lot of history and wonderful buildings. We tried Berlin food speciality Currywurst, which we found very enjoyable. Currywurst is street food curried sausage which will be served on a cardboard plate. It is cut into 1-inch bite sized bits, and topped with a curry ketchup sauce and often with a good dash of curry powder as well, with a plastic or wooden disposable fork that comes with it. After a day in Berlin, it was time to fly next day to Bangkok first, via Singapore with Scoot Airlines flying time 17 hours. This airline is low cost airline ,where you have to pay for everything including seating, blankets and in flight meals. There is no in flight entertainment on their flights. I was surprise how packed our flights were to Bangkok. Transiting in Singapore was very easy ,with no need to re check our bags. Once we arrived at Bangkok clearing customs and immigration we then took a domestic flight with Air Asia, another low cost carrier. Flying time Bangkok-Krabi around 1 hour and 30 minutes. When we arrived in Krabi we booked a private transfer to the hotel via road transport and boat. Journey time around 1 hour and 30 minutes. Once we arrived at the hotel by boat, we had to walk along a floating pier pontoon. Be prepared when taking the boat to the hotel, not to dress up with best clothes as you have to walk on the sand to get into the boat plus also have good sea legs as the floating pier pontoon could be rough when high tide. Once we arrived at the hotel. We checked in and were greeted with a welcome drink and then shown to our room which was 1034.The staff were very friendly and helpful around the resort. We had a lovely room with great views and a spacious bathroom with rain shower. The hotel Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Krabi is a big resort offering a spa, 4 restaurants, kids club, Cascading Pool with Waterslide, Fitness, Water sports centre, Sauna, Steam room and Children's Pool. Our first night, we ventured out taking the monkey trail which consist of lots of climbing steep stairs. It took around 10 minutes to get into resort of Ao Nang where there were lots of shops and restaurants. We found a lovely restaurant called The Last Fisherman Bar, which was very reasonable priced offering authentic Thai food. The next 5 nights we had breakfast at the hotel, which was offering a buffet breakfast with hot and cold dishes from western and Asia dishes. It was a good selection. The hotel is suitable for honeymooners, although the hotel caters for families too, and offers a complimentary Shuttle Speedboat transfer to Nopparat Thara Pier, where you can take a taxi to Ao Nang night market, Krabi night market weekends only or Ao Nang town centre. We did the monkey trail during the day, which was nice. As we did see lots of monkeys and the cute babies one too, as the trail suggested. Along the route you see beautiful beaches and cliff edges. The monkey trail is well lit at night time, Ao Nang resort has lots of shops, restaurants and bars plus exchange currency bureaus. I suggest changing your money in Thailand for better rates of exchange. In October, when we went is considered rainy season, but we only had one morning of rain during our stay so we were very lucky! We managed to visit the sister hotel Centara Ao Nang Beach Resort & Spa Krabi which impressed us both. Krabi is a great place to island hop to places like Phuket, Phi Phi Island and Koh Lanta. We visited Ao Nang night market and also Krabi night market, both very good for eating cheap street food. We found Ao Nang very reasonable for eating out in restaurants and offered great beaches. We both loved Krabi for the food and the people, we would love to go back again. Sadly after 5 nights, it was time to go back home via Bangkok and Singapore with Scoot airlines and Air Asia. Again we stopped off in Berlin for the night. We stayed at the Riu Plaza hotel. Great hotel with great views of Berlin. We had room 1702 with a nice bathroom. The staff was very friendly and helpful. The hotel was in a good location with metro station within 5 minutes walk, and near to the famous Berlin Zoo. On our return back we visited the Berlin wall which was very poignant and also Checkpoint Charlie. We both think Berlin is a great city to visit, with lots to see and do. We plan to take another visit in the future. A special thanks go to the following people Betsie Barr from Tourism Authority of Thailand and Dan Vo from Centara Hotels & Resorts for making this trip possible for me and my wife.